Adam Carolla’s Take on Luck

After meeting Jimmy Kimmel in 1994, it would seem Adam Carolla’s career blossomed due to that lucky encounter. Indeed, the multi-talented Carolla has acquired quite a resume; he can boast being a comedian, best-selling author, radio personality, actor, television host, podcaster, and director. But Adam Carolla most certainly does not attribute his success to luck. Instead he insists he earned everything that’s good in his life. He explains:

“Jimmy did not come to my house. I went to Jimmy’s work. And I couldn’t get into it because it was a radio station and it was locked up. And I came back the next morning and I got in, and I found him and made my own luck.”

In the 1990s, Carolla had accumulated work experience as a carpet cleaner, a skilled carpenter, a traffic school instructor, and he became a boxing trainer in his free time. He also studied with the improv group The Groundlings. When Carolla heard the KROQ-FM Kevin and Bean radio program was arranging a fight between two of their regulars–one of which was Jimmy Kimmel AKA “Jimmy the Sports Guy”–Carolla saw an opportunity. The 30-year-old volunteered his services as a boxing trainer to Kimmel. Jimmy took him up on the offer, and in turn, the two would develop a strong friendship and business partnership. Right away, Carolla procured a recurring role on Kevin and Bean as the crotchety woodshop teacher, Mr. Birchum. A few years later, the two men co-produced and became co-stars of Comedy Central’s The Man Show.

Adam believes that all people are inherently unlucky. But he views this as a good thing. After all, he argues that if he really thought he was lucky, he’d probably still be sitting on his futon in his North Hollywood apartment scratching lottery tickets. So the comedian recommends another approach for people to achieve success: good old-fashioned hard work. He declares:

“Don’t count on luck; rely on hard work. Look at life as a prize fight and you’ve got to get up and do road work every morning. And you’ve got to work that heavy bag, and you got to work that speed bag, and you got to work that double-ended bag…Why? Because if you don’t train you’ll go into that ring of life and get your a** whooped. And I don’t want to see that happen to you.”

He continues saying, “If your resume is on a desk, and there’s someone else’s resume on the desk, and they’re both exactly equal. They’re going to pick the other guy’s resume every time. Look at life that way. Thus, your resume must be twice as good as the guy you’re going against.”

Twice as good is quite a lot to ask. So, he concludes, “Now that you guys are all feeling like you’re born under a dark cloud, let’s get out there and take over the world.”

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